Fish kill shuts down Heron Pond

Tuesday

Aug 7, 2012 at 12:01 AMAug 7, 2012 at 11:25 AM

Nearly 1,000 fish rotted on the surface of Heron Pond over the weekend, prompting officials to close the pond at Three Creeks Metro Park. Karen Norris, wildlife communications specialist for the Ohio Department of Natural Resources' Division of Wildlife, said small changes in oxygen levels typically lead to drastic fish die-offs.

Ally Marotti, The Columbus Dispatch

Nearly 1,000 fish rotted on the surface of Heron Pond over the weekend, prompting officials to close the pond at Three Creeks Metro Park.

Peg Hanley, a Metro Parks spokeswoman, said the pond tested negative for toxic blue-green algae several weeks ago, leading Metro Parks officials to believe that oxygen depletion killed the fish.

“When the weather gets real, real hot and then it gets real, real cool, the oxygen gets depleted in the water, so that’s what happened,” she said. “We can’t control the weather.”

Hanley said mostly shad died in the kill, which was reported Friday. Most of the dead fish have washed up along the edge of the pond, attracting flies and other scavengers.

Karen Norris, wildlife communications specialist for the Ohio Department of Natural Resources’ Division of Wildlife, said small changes in oxygen levels typically lead to drastic fish die-offs.

“They suddenly die. It’s just like you if you couldn’t breathe,” she said. “They need to get the oxygen out of the water.”

But Norris said there likely are survivors. With the lower oxygen levels, the pond could support fewer fish. When conditions stabilize, fish populations should return.“It’ll probably take awhile to get back to normal,” Norris said. “Dead fish use up oxygen in the water as they decay.”

This is not the first time the fish in the Groveport-area pond have died off. Heron Pond was closed in August 2010 for several days after another fish kill, presumably because of oxygen depletion.

Three Creeks park ranger Scott Hoy said Heron Pond is the shallowest pond there, measuring 2 to 3 feet deep. The other large body of water, Turtle Pond, is about 8 feet deep.

Metro Parks workers are scheduled to begin cleaning up the pond today. Hanley said it might remain closed until next week.

The Associated Press has reported similar fish kills throughout the Midwest. Thousands of fish are dying across states such as Iowa, Nebraska and Illinois because of dried-up rivers and water temperatures that have exceeded 100 degrees.

amarotti@dispatch.com

@AllyMarotti

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